This is significant because
in Swaziland the King’s word is law. Once he pronounces on a topic no further
discussion is allowed. It also demonstrates that the Swazi government and
parliament which is made up of a House of Assembly and a Senate has no real
powers in the kingdom.

Political parties are not
allowed to contest elections and the King chooses the Prime Minister and
Cabinet ministers. In Swaziland, people only get to select 55 of 65 members of
the House of Assembly; the King chooses the other 10. No members of the Swazi
Senate are elected by the people; the King chooses 20 and the other 10 are selected
by members of the House of Assembly.

There has been disagreement
among Swazi parliamentarians about a budget for a new parliament building. It
is estimated to cost E2.3 billion. The building plans alone are said to cost E250
million.

By contrast the health
budget for the coming year in Swaziland is E2 billion; Defence is E1.5 billion
and Agriculture, 1.4 billion.

The kingdom’s economy is in
freefall. In his speech opening Parliament on 16 February 2018, King Mswati
said he wanted a realistic budget ‘based on
available resources’. He also gave a
list of projects, including a new parliament building, that he said must go
ahead.

The Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the
kingdom reported on Thursday (15 March 2018), ‘The matter has become a hot
potato after MPs raised concerns why there was no money allocated towards the
construction of the Parliament building yet the King had clearly pronounced
himself on the project during his speech from the Throne last month.’

The Times Sunday reported on 11 March 2018 that a report of the Finance
Sessional Committee on why the project had stalled stated, ‘The project costs
an amount to the tune of E2.3 billion which is the total annual budget for the
capital expenditure hence the proposal to defer it, until proper and due
diligence has been done on the project.’

It added E50 million had
been budgeted for the project in 2017-2018 but the funds had not been used.

This is not the first time
King Mswati has pronounced on a topic of controversy. In 2012 during a
long-running and bitter schoolteachers’ strike
the King commanded it should end
and all teachers who had been dismissed during it be reinstated. This was
against the wishes of the Cabinet.

At the time, the Times
Sunday reported him saying government belonged to His Majesty and it took
instructions from him to implement them to the letter, without questioning
them.

He told the newspaper, ‘Government listens when His
Majesty speaks and we will always implement the wishes of the King and the
Queen mother.’

The PM said Cabinet’s position on the matter was that
it respected His Majesty’s position on all matters he spoke about.

He said Cabinet just like the nation, heard what the
King said and his wishes would be implemented.

Timothy Velabo Mtetwa, the then acting Ludzidzini
Governor, otherwise known as the ‘traditional’ prime minister, said no one had
a right to further deliberate on an issue that the King had already pronounced
on.

The Ludzidzini Governor is considered in traditional
Swazi society to be more important than the nominal Prime Minister. The
Governor is said to speak for the King and his word is law.

Mtetwa told local media, ‘My understanding of Swazi
culture and etiquette is that the King’s word is final. Once the King issues an
order regarding anything, the order has to be implemented by the relevant
structures.’

He told the Times
of Swaziland, ‘It doesn’t matter which position you could be occupying, the
truth is no one is allowed to defy the King’s order. There is no exception to
this long held Swazi cultural ethic.’

A workshop in Swaziland on the forthcoming election
was banned because it was deemed illegal.

More than 30 young people and community leaders from
across the kingdom were turned away from the Castle Hotel in Mbabane on Friday
(16 March 2018). The workshop was reportedly supported by the Elections and
Boundaries Commission and the Swaziland National Youth Council.

The Sunday
Observer reported (18 March 2018) ‘The organisers of the event said they
had received instructions from labadzala
who could not be named that they should cancel the seminar because they had not
obtained permission for hosting it.’ Labadzala
refers to Royal elders.

Elections are due in 2018 at a date yet to be set.
King Mswati III rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
Political parties are not allowed to contest in elections and people and groups that advocate for democratic
reform are prosecuted under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. The King chooses the Prime Minister and top
government ministers. In Swaziland, people only get to select 55 of 65 members
of the House of Assembly. The King chooses the other 10. No members of the
Swazi Senate are elected by the people; the King chooses 20 and the other 10
are elected by members of the House of Assembly.

Freedom of assembly is
severely curtailed in Swaziland, especially in the run-up to elections. In
2013, before the most recent election, armed police stopped an election
workshop organised by the Swaziland Youth Empowerment Organisation, also known
as Luvatsi, at a Pentecostal Church in Sidvokodvo. The police had no warrant or
court order, but were acting on instructions of their station commander, local
media reported.

This was not the only
example of people being prevented freely discussing issues in the
run up to the election. The NGOs Election Network which operates under the
Swazi-based Coordinating Assembly of Non-governmental Organisations (CANGO) and
which observed
the polls said in a report, ‘Civil society meetings were
crushed, including prayer meetings.’

It added, ‘With no enjoyment of the rights to access information and
also exchange information, freedom to associate, freedom of movement and
freedom of speech it has become difficult for citizens to canvass issues.’

An election rally organised by the Swaziland Youth Congress
(SWAYOCO) at Msunduza Township, Mbabane, in April 2013 was broken up by police
and organisers charged with sedition. Swazi Police Commissioner Isaac Magagula
had warned SWAYOCO in advance that his officers would stop any attempt at
meeting.

In a statement carried
by media in Swaziland the police chief said, ‘As a
police service and organ of state responsible for internal security and
maintenance of law and order, we wish to state it in no uncertain terms that
the political rally planned by SWAYOCO for April 19, 2013 will not be allowed
to take place.’

He added, ‘[I]t is unthinkable that an event whose agenda includes
sabotaging the forthcoming national elections can be allowed to take place.’

SWAYOCO is the youth wing of the People’s United Democratic Movement
(PUDEMO), the best-known opposition group in Swaziland. Both have been branded
‘terrorist’ organisations and banned by King Mswati’s government.

Sunday, 18 March 2018

Foreign-owned banks in Swaziland might leave the
kingdom if a proposed new levy announced by the Minister of Finance Martin
Dlamini goes ahead.

Banks will be expected to pay 2.5 percent of their
annual income to the government of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch.

Standard Bank Chief Executive Mvuselelo Fakudze told a
meeting at Gigi’s Restaurant, Ezulwini on Monday (12 March 2018) banks had parent
companies in other countries which would close their Swaziland operations if
profits fell.

The
Swazi Observer,
a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, reported that Fakudze said, ‘Government
may be forcing investors which are the parent companies of most of the banks we
have in Swaziland to review their reason of being in the country. With
Swaziland being a small economy, the percentage of what we give back to our
parent companies is far less than what subsidiaries in other countries are
offering, so now the bank revenue levy will make us even less profitable.’

He
said banks had not been consulted on the new levy.

The Swaziland Government owns 25 percent of the shares
in Standard Bank Swaziland Ltd. There
are three foreign-owned banks in the kingdom: Standard Bank, Nedbank and First
National. The government-owned Swaziland Development and Savings Bank
went bankrupt due to millions of dollars of unpaid loans in June 1995. Today, the
kingdom’s only local bank is SwaziBank.

At present Swazi TV has no chief executive after
Bongani ‘S’gcokosiyancinca’ Dlamini’s contract expired in December 2017.

Dlamini headed a
station in turmoil. It has failed to submit audited financial
statements to the Auditor General since 2014. A ‘Commission of Inquiry’ was
held in 2016 but its results were not made public.

In April 2016, the Sunday Observer reported, ‘Dlamini
was suspended together with the television station’s Chief Financial Officer
Albert Masuku after reports that the station was going through a financial
crisis as it is operating on a E40 million deficit.’

It said armed police were deployed at the station while an internal
audit was underway.

Once the Commission of Inquiry was finished, Minister of Information
Communication and Technology Dumsani Ndlangamandla told the Observer on Saturday in January 2017 ‘I
can safely say the organisation was cleared of any mismanagement of funds, in
fact the national broadcaster suffered a huge strain when their subvention was
reduced without any other interventions like retrenchments or ways of cutting
cost of running the national TV.’

The newspaper added, ‘Ndlangamandla revealed that the station had all
along been given E47 million and then it was suddenly given E27 million which
was suicidal. The minister said the station’s running costs per quarter was E6
million for salaries yet the station needs to cover other costs like content
procurement and other running costs for a functional broadcaster.’

Swazi TV is one of only two television stations in Swaziland and is
under state control. The other station, Channel S is privately-owned, but has a
stated editorial
policy to always support King Mswati, III who
rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Political parties are banned from taking part in
elections in Swaziland and the King chooses the Prime Minister and senior
cabinet posts.

Swazi TV is widely regarded as a propaganda station.
In June
2015, a report tabled at the Swaziland Parliament revealed that censorship at
Swazi TV was so tight that every month the Swaziland Government issued
directives to the station about what events it should cover.

And, the Government had also banned ordinary members of parliament from
appearing on the news programmes of Swazi TV.

At the time, Dlamini, the Chief Executive, said the instructions had
been given to the station in advance of the 2013 national elections by then
Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Winnie Magagula.

His revelation was contained in a report tabled by Hhukwini MP Saladin
Magagula, chairperson of the House of Assembly select committee investigating
the media ban imposed on MPs by state-controlled media.

According to a report in the Swazi
Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, Dlamini said, ‘It was
communicated to the station that any activity outside of government’s calendar
cannot be featured as news and that government’s calendar is sent monthly by
the press officer in Cabinet and it is normally updated in between.’

In May 2010, Barnabas Dlamini the Prime Minister said
Swazi Television and state-controlled SBIS radio should follow government
policy and do what they were told. He was talking at an editors’ forum when he
reminded his audience that government had dictated that state media were banned
from promoting gambling activities, including Top Lotto, smoking and drinking
alcohol.

He said the state media had no discretion in the matter. ‘Government’s
stance involved is clear, so state-owned media cannot even use their discretion
where this is concerned, but they are advised to simply ignore all gambling
activities. Even if you are interviewing someone and that person mentions
something about gambling, just cut the interview,’ the Swazi Observer
reported him saying.

Friday, 16 March 2018

Police armed with batons
blocked a road in Swaziland to stop a petition rejecting the national budget
being delivered to parliament.

Police with guns watched
from a distance.

It happened in Lobamba on
Thursday (15 March 2018). About 100 members of civil society groups, community
organisations and political parties under the banner of the Swaziland Economic
Justice Network marched from Somhlolo National Stadium heading to the
Parliament gate.

The Times of Swaziland, the only independent newspaper in the kingdom
where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported
the march was halted because it ‘would disturb Labadzala’. Labadzala is a group
of Royal elders.

The newspaper reported,
‘the participants resolved to march and force the police out of their way to
deliver the petition.

‘However, immediately when
they got into the road towards the traffic circle, the police, who were mostly
armed with batons, formed a line across the road while those carrying guns
watched from a distance.

‘The participants tried to
divert from the main road and marched across the traffic circle but more police
officers joined their colleagues to extend the barrier. Thereafter, the
participants sang provocative political songs while dancing and toyi- toying in
front of police officers.’

A representative of the
Clerk to Parliament came out and received the petition.

The national budget has been controversial for a number of reasons, mainly because it raises
Value Added Tax by 1 percent to 15 percent. A plan to impose 15 percent VAT on
electricity prices for the first time has been shelved pending a review.

Freedom of speech and
assembly are severely curtailed in Swaziland. Political parties are banned from
taking part in elections and King Mswati chooses the Prime Minister and cabinet
ministers. Advocates for multiparty democracy have been arrested under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

Meetings on all topics are routinely banned in
Swaziland and the kingdom’s police and security forces have been criticised by
international observers. In 2013, the Open Society Initiative for Southern
Africa (OSISA) reported that Swaziland was becoming a police and military
state. It said things had become so bad that police were
unable to accept that peaceful political and social dissent was a vital element
of a healthy democratic process, and should not be viewed as a crime.

OSISA said, ‘There are also reliable reports of a
general militarization of the country through the deployment of the Swazi army,
police and correctional services to clamp down on any peaceful protest action
by labour or civil society organisations ahead of the country’s undemocratic
elections [in 2013].’

As recently as September 2017, police
stopped a pro-democracy meeting taking place, saying they had
not given organisers permission to meet. It happened during a Global Week of
Action for democracy in the kingdom. About 100 people reportedly intended to
meet at the Mater Dolorosa School (MDS) in the kingdom’s capital,
Mbabane.

In 2013, after police broke up a meeting to discuss
the pending election, the meeting’s joint
organisers, the Swaziland United Democratic Front
(SUDF) and the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC) said Swaziland no longer had
a national police service, but instead had ‘a private militia with no other
purpose but to serve the unjust, dictatorial, unSwazi and ungodly, semi-feudal
royal Tinkhundla system of misrule’.

In April 2015, a planned rally to mark the anniversary
of the royal decree that turned Swaziland from a democracy to a kingdom ruled
by an autocratic monarch was abandoned
amid fears that police would attack participants.
In February and March, large numbers of police disbanded meetings of the Trade
Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), injuring at least one union leader.

In 2014, police
illegally abducted prodemocracy leaders and drove them up to
30 kilometres away, and dumped them to prevent them taking part in a meeting
calling for freedom in the kingdom. Police staged roadblocks on all major roads
leading to Swaziland’s main commercial city Manzini where protests were to be
held. They also physically blocked halls to prevent meetings taking place.Earlier in the day police had announced on
state radio that meetings would not be allowed to take place.

In 2012,
four days of public protest were planned by trade unions and
other prodemocracy organisations. They were brutally suppressed by police and
state forces and had to be abandoned.

Barnabas Dlamini,
Swaziland’s unelected Prime Minister, is under fire from members of parliament
over a plan to build him a retirement house costing E5.5 million from public
funds.

They said the house was too
expensive and the designs alone cost E1.5 million.

The money was included in
the national budget announced earlier this month.

The Times of
Swaziland reported on
Wednesday (14 March 2018) that the Prime Minister ‘went as far as including the
King’s name’ in his justification for having the house.

King Mswati III rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Political parties are
banned from taking part in elections. The King appoints the Prime Minister and
senior government ministers. In Swaziland the King’s word is law and if he
gives a directive it is to be followed without question.

The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, reported
the King, ‘has blessed the site where the house would be built, the PM told MPs’.

It added, ‘Dlamini also told the MPs that the King had chosen a site
where the house would be built.’

A Royal Commission has already been announced to look into the salaries
and benefits of parliamentarians. The E5.5milion (US$467,000) budget for the
house was left unchanged.

Dlamini is aged 75 and in
poor health. He is widely expected to retire at the next national election due
sometime in 2018.

The Prime Minister’s retirement package is set out in Finance
Circular No 2 of 2013. He will
receive 80 percent of his final salary until he dies. In 2016 it stood at
E802,854. In Swaziland seven in ten of the estimated 1.1 population have
incomes less than the equivalent of US$2 per day (about E8,760 per year).

The Swazi taxpayer will
contribute the full amount payable to a medical aid scheme of which the Prime
Minister is a member. They will provide a house and a vehicle of the same
status as the one he has while in office. Dlamini will also ‘be afforded
security in line with the risk profile as determined by the Commissioner of
Police’. He will be provided with a personal assistant.

When the cost of the PM’s
house was included in the 2017 national budget, MPs protested that the amount was too much and should be frozen
to a time when the kingdom could afford it.

Finance Minister Martin
Dlamini did not make reference to the PM’s house in his budget speech, but he did state that the budget only included ‘the most critical
expenditure items’.

Thursday, 15 March 2018

Armed police in Swaziland
fired rubber bullets and arrested eight students when they put a rubbish skip
in the middle of a road during a protest.

It happened at Limkokwing
University, Mbabane.

Students were protesting about
poor wi-fi internet connections. It was part of a continuing protest against
poor teaching and facilities.

The Swazi
Observer, a newspaper in
effect owned by King Mswati who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch, reported on Thursday (15 March 2018) students put a
‘litterbin’ in the road near a market which caused motorists to slow down and
‘gingerly negotiate’.

The newspaper reported, ‘This
prompted police to spring into action and fire warning shots aimed at
dispersing the rowdy students.’ It added students were ‘shocked to the core’.

Students were protesting
that internet facilities had been poor for a long time and they were unable to
meet deadlines to produce assignments.

Limkokwing, part of an
international group of campuses, has been controversial since it opened in
Swaziland in 2011. Students and education commentators have highlighted the
poor quality of courses, staff and resources. Limkokwing in
Swaziland only offers ‘associate degrees’ which are at a level below Bachelor
degrees and in many colleges are known as diplomas.

In 2016, a Swaziland
parliamentary committee investigated the standard of qualifications held by
academic staff at the university after students petitioned that many lecturers
only held Bachelor degrees and had just themselves qualified from the
university.

At that time fees for each Swazi student was E8,000
(US$577) a year for tuition. The government added an additional E33,700 as
accommodation and meal allowance and E9,000 as a book allowance.

Educational standards at Limkokwing are lower than
those at other universities, including the University of Swaziland. It does not
require students to have qualifications in the English language. In June 2012, Bandile Mkhonta, Head of Human Resource
for Limkokwing in Mbabane, told
local media that of 53 professional staff at the
university only one had a Ph.D doctorate. A Ph.D is usually considered by
universities to be the minimum qualification required to be given the rank of
senior lecturer. Limkokwing in Swaziland had no staff at professor rank and no
record of conducting scholarly research.

The Swazi
Observerreported
Mkhonta saying Limkokwing had fewer Ph.Ds because it was
a ‘non-conventional’ university whose curriculum was mainly based on practice
than theory.

The university was launched
in Swaziland only after an intervention by King Mswati. In
June 2011, it emerged that the university’s founder Tan Sri Dato Lim Kok Wing had
a meeting with King Mswati and convinced him that Swaziland
needed a new university – and Limkokwing should be it.

He persuaded
the King that low-level courses in such subjects as Graphic
Designing, TV & Film Production, Architectural Technology, Advertising,
Creative Multimedia, Information Technology, Event Management, Business
Information Technology, Journalism and Media, Public Relations and Business
Management, would help Swaziland which is mainly an agricultural society to
prosper.

Once the King gave his support nobody in his kingdom
stood in its way. Limkokwing started in Swaziland illegally because an Act of
Parliament was needed to set up a university, but Limkokwing was allowed to
start without parliament’s approval.

The cash-strapped government that was seeking ways to
save money on higher education at the kingdom’s established University of
Swaziland offered Limkokwing US$2 million a year it could not afford for
scholarships for up to 800 students.

Soon after Limkokwing opened, students began
protesting that they were not getting their allowances and there were no
textbooks and too few laptops. There were at least 20 protests,
class boycotts and closures during the first year after it opened. Police used teargas and rubber bullets
against protesting students. One student was shot in the leg.

In October 2016 police
fired gunshots at students at Limkokwing and at least four
students received ‘serious injuries’ during protests about the poor quality of teaching at the university and
inferior facilities.

The Swaziland Government has bought a fleet of luxury
BMW cars worth US$7.5 million ahead of the King’s 50/50 celebrations.

The cost of the cars alone bust the US$1.7 million budget the
government allowed itself for the festivities to mark King Mswati III’s 50th
birthday and the 50th anniversary of Swaziland’s independence from
Great Britain. The Taiwanese Government has donated an extra US$1.3 million but
that still leaves Swaziland US$4.5 million short on the cost of the cars alone.

The Times
Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland where King Mswati rules as
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported (11 March 2018) the cars
would be used by the Close Protection Unit which is responsible for protecting
dignitaries.

The newspaper did not say how many vehicles were
purchased. It said the Ministry of Public Works and Transport announced the E89
million purchase in a report tabled in parliament last week. It said Lindiwe
Dlamini, Minister of Public Works and Transport, had not responded to questions
it sent to her regarding the purchase.

The cars were bought through the government’s Central Transport
Administration (CTA) which was severely criticised in the Auditor General’s
most recent report for illegally
spending millions of emalangeni and not keeping proper
financial records.

The purchase raises questions about the lack of
financial control around the 50/50 celebrations. In 2008 the budget for the
40/40 celebrations overran by
E32.6 million (about US$5 million at the then exchange rate). E17 million was
budgeted but it ended up costing at least E50.2 million. The exact figure is
still uncertain. The total cost of the entire 40/40
celebrations was E39 million less than the cost of the BMW vehicles this year.

In 2010 the Auditor General reported that E1,839,934
was spent illegally because capital release warrants had not been made. Salary
overtime claims from civil servants amounted to E5 million. The Weekend Observer newspaper in Swaziland
reported (18 December 2010), ‘Civil servants who had access to claim overtime
pay in their various workstations took advantage of the lax arrangements at the
celebrations committee to drain money.’

More than E1 million was spent on providing 14
portable toilets (E71,428 each) for the three-day event. The Weekend Observer (30 August 2008)
reported other sanitary expenses,‘E173,000 is needed for hiring 10 of 10,000 litre water tanks over the
same period. E94,500 is required for 100 bales of toilet paper, whilst E5,500
is needed for 10 of 25 litre liquid soap. For five boxes of sunlight soap
E7,100 is sought, while E7,900 is required for detergents, amongst other
things.’ It estimated more than E2 million was spent in total on sanitary
arrangements.

A search by Swazi Media Commentary at the time
revealed that that portable toilets could be hired from neighbouring South
Africa at a cost starting at about E500 (US$70 at the then exchange rate) a
day.

Wednesday, 14 March 2018

Members of parliament in Swaziland have
blocked funding to state-controlled radio because they say they
are not being allowed on air.

One said the stations under
the Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Services (SBIS) were being used for
‘character assassination’.

Nkwene MP Sikhumbuzo
Dlamini told the House of Assembly SBIS had been used to assassinate his
character as a member of parliament.

The Swazi Observer newspaper, which is itself in effect owned by King Mswati
III who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported
on Tuesday (13 March 2018), ‘He said the national radio station was used to
tell people how he was evil and disrespectful. The message was sent to the
people in a way to de-campaign him. He strongly blamed the editors at SBIS for
disseminating news meant to humiliate him.’

During a debate, Nkhaba MP
Menzi Dlamini wanted to know if it was still proper for the radio station to be
referred to as a national radio station or should it be the ‘Cabinet radio
station’.

The Observer reported, ‘He informed his colleagues how he was once
denied access to the radio station when he wanted to air an announcement to
inform Nkhaba people about an event they were supposed to attend.’

Maphalaleni MP Mabulala
Maseko said as MPs they were pioneers of development and also coordinated
development activities. So they were supposed to be given access to state media
to talk about developmental issues in their constituencies.

The MPs resolved that they
would not release E2 million (US$170,000) to renovate the SBIS studios.

All radio in Swaziland,
except one Christian station that does not broadcast news, is state controlled.
The largest of only two television stations in the kingdom is also
state-controlled.

There is a long history of
censorship. In August 2014, Minister of Information, Communication and
Technology (ICT) Dumisani Ndlangamandla said the Swaziland Government would not let up on its
control of state radio,He said state media existed primarily to serve the interests of the state.

In August 2012, the government announced that in advance of the national
election in September 2013 radio would be banned from broadcasting news and information that did
not support the government’s own agenda.

New guidelines also barred
‘public service announcements’ unless they were ‘in line with government
policy’ or had been authorised ‘by the chiefs through the regional
administrators’ or deputy prime minister’s office’.

The guidelines said the
radio stations could not be ‘used for purposes of campaigning by individuals or
groups, or to advance an agenda for political, financial popularity gains for
individuals or groups’.

Strikes and anti-government
demonstrations are usually ignored by broadcasters. Sometimes live radio
programmes are censored on air. In July 2011, the plug was pulled on a phone-in
programme when listeners started criticising the government for its handling of
the economy. Percy Simelane, who was then the boss of SBIS, and went on to
become the government’s official spokesperson, personally stormed the radio studio and cut the programme.

In April 2011, Welile
Dlamini, a long-time news editor at SBIS, challenged the Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini at an editors’
forum meeting on why the state radio station was told by the government what
and what not to broadcast. Welile Dlamini said that at the station they were
instructed not to use certain stories such as those about demonstrations by
progressives and strike action by workers. The PM responded by saying editors
should resign if they were not happy with the editorial policies they are
expected to work with.

In March 2011, SBIS stopped broadcasting the BBC World Service Focus on Africa programme
after it carried reports critical of King Mswati.

In 2010, Swazi police told
SBIS it must stop allowing people to broadcast information about future
meetings unless the police had given permission. Jerome Dlamini, Deputy
Director of the SBIS saidthis
was to stop the radio station airing an announcement for a meeting that was
prohibited.

He said, ‘It’s the
station’s policy not to make announcements without police permission.’

In 2006, the Minister for Public
Service and Information, Themba Msibi, warned the Swazi broadcasters against
criticising the King. MISA reported at the time, ‘The minister’s threats followed a live radio
programme of news and current affairs in which a human rights lawyer criticised
the King’s sweeping constitutional powers.’

Human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko, had been asked to comment on a visit by an
African Union (AU) human rights team which was on a fact-finding mission to
Swaziland.

‘In response, Maseko said that, as human rights activists, they had concerns
about the King’s sweeping constitutional powers and the fact that he the King
was wrongfully placed above the Constitution. He said they were going to bring
this and other human rights violations to the attention of the AU
delegation.

‘Not pleased with the
broadcast, the government was quick to respond. Msibi spoke on air the
following day to sternly warn the media against criticising the King. He said
the media should exercise respect and avoid issues that seek to question the
King or his powers.

‘The minister said his
message was not directed only to radio but to all media, both private and
government-owned. He said that in government they had noticed that there was
growing trend in the media to criticise the King when he should be above
criticism and public scrutiny,’ MISA reported.